


Where Fate Finds You (the Heaven, Hell or Houston remix)

by airspaniel



Category: Heroes - Fandom, The Sandman
Genre: Community: remix_redux, Crossover, Gen, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-11
Updated: 2010-05-11
Packaged: 2017-10-09 10:03:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/85994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/airspaniel/pseuds/airspaniel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Charlie Andrews is dead, which is very close to Dreaming, and finds herself in The Library.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where Fate Finds You (the Heaven, Hell or Houston remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [irisbleufic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/irisbleufic/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Where Fate Finds You](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/684) by irisbleufic. 



> I took irisbleufic's [Where Fate Finds You](http://irisbleufic.livejournal.com/63361.html), updated it a little, and threw a little more Texas on it. ^_~ Hope you like it! My remix title comes courtesy of ZZ Top, and I couldn't resist a [Kate Beaton](http://beatonna.livejournal.com) reference.
> 
> Special thanks to my dear [Red Stapler](http://redstapler.livejournal.com), for giving this a look-see for me. ^_^

Charlie Andrews was dead.

She didn't remember exactly how she got that way. The blood clot in her brain? Or, no, it was more like a slicing pain, and she kind of remembered blood on her face in the back room of the Burnt Toast. But then she remembered years of a life lived after she left the diner. Remembered having a family; remembered lying in a bed and feeling her body slip away, dying of… old age? She looked down at her hands, at the yellow sundress she was wearing. Didn't look that old. Sure didn't _feel_ it, but that probably didn't mean much, since she had died and all.

In any case, however it happened, it had to do with a screaming headache and Hiro Nakamura.

Oh, Hiro…

Well, it didn't much matter how she got dead, she reckoned, only that she was. She died, and… And…

"Where the heck am I?" she said out loud, her own voice surprising her as it echoed through endless marble halls filled with dark wood shelves that stretched up so high she couldn't see the tops of them; each shelf chock-full of books. More books than anyone could read in a lifetime.

"Whatsa matter?" a voice answered from above her. "Never seen a library before?"

Charlie wheeled around, looked up, and couldn't see anyone there. Just a big black bird sitting a couple shelves up, watching her with what looked like an amused expression. As far as big black birds could look amused.

"I…" she started, uncertain. "Not like this." She looked around again, wondering if the person she's talking to was invisible. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing she'd ever seen. "Where are you, anyway?"

The bird _laughed_. It really laughed, that same strange squawky voice from before. "You're looking right at me! Never seen a talking raven before either, I guess."

"Well, I can't imagine very many people have," she replied, a little put out that this bird fella was having a laugh at her expense; planting her hands on her hips. "And don't you go acting like this is just a normal library either, thank you very much. This is weird enough for me without being made fun of by somebody straight outta Poe."

The raven tossed his head back and barked out a loud cawing laugh. "Oh, I like you! He's got great taste, that's for sure."

Charlie got a sudden chill at that. "Who's _he_?" she asked, nervousness creeping into her attitude. "And who are you, for that matter?"

"Me?" the raven demurred, idly picking at a stray feather on his wing. "I'm Matthew. The boss…" he trailed off, searching for the words, or maybe just debating whether he should say them. "Well, I'm sure he'll want to introduce himself. He's kinda hard to explain, anyway."

"That will be sufficient, Matthew," somebody said from behind her, in a voice like pages rustling. Charlie turned, and there was a tall, slender man in spectacles, clothes old-fashioned but immaculate, except for the faint trace of paperdust and ink here and there.

"Aw, come on," Matthew protested, ruffling his feathers. "I wasn't gonna say anything."

"Regardless, now that our guest has arrived, I'm sure my Lord will be wanting a word."

Charlie huffed out a quiet noise that might've wanted to be a laugh but never quite made it there. "Looks like he's got plenty of them right here," she mumbled under her breath.

The spectacled man very nearly smiled at that, and Matthew laughed again. "Oh, I _really_ like you," the raven chuckled. "This is gonna be fun." And with that he was gone in a flutter of big black wings, leaving Charlie alone with the man.

"Well," she tried, feeling kind of awkward. "I gotta say, this isn't anything like I thought Heaven would be."

The man's expression didn't change one bit. "This isn't Heaven, dear girl."

Charlie was struck by a stab of panic at that. "Oh god, it's not Hell is it? I mean, it can't be Hell, look at all these books. There aren't books in Hell, are there?"

"I suppose there must be," the man said, genuinely considering the question. "But no, Charlene Andrews. This is not Hell. You are in the Dreaming."

"Dreaming?" she repeated. "But I _died_. How can I be dreaming if I'm dead?" Then his words really sank in, and she narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "And it's Charlie, thank you, but how'd you know my name? And who are you?"

"Charlie. Of course. I am Lucien," the man reached out a thin, elegant hand and plucked a book off the shelf behind him, handing it to her; and her throat went dry and her hands started shaking when she saw what it was. "And I believe this belongs to you."

"My… my phrasebook," she gasped, running her fingertips over the familiar kanji on the cover. "Hiro gave me this! How'd you get this?"

Lucien pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose. "I think you'll find that I have all of your books," he said, full of pride. "All of everyone's books, both written and unwritten."

She clutched her phrasebook tighter to her chest. Now Charlie was willing to accept a whole lot of stuff, including the fact that she was dead maybe as many as three times over and stuck in some kind of crazy limbo library with a mysterious overlord for probably all eternity, but that didn't make a lick of sense. As her eyes scanned the shelves, though, she noticed some of the titles were just plain weird.

"_Pride and Prejudice and Monster Trucks_?" she read aloud, and Lucien half-chuckled in response.

"The title, unfortunately, is the most compelling thing about that one. Very poorly conceived."

"Have you read all of these books?" Charlie asked, equal parts disbelief and wonder.

"A librarian must be familiar with his collection," he answered, somewhat cryptically, and even though that wasn't really an answer, Charlie got the impression he wasn't gonna give her a better one.

"That'd take a heck of a long time."

"Time is a relative construct, and something we have no shortage of," said a voice from behind her, and Charlie spun around

"I'm gettin' real sick of people sneakin' up behind me instead of introducing themselves properly," she huffed, and was surprised to find a tall man in white so bright he seemed to glow. Maybe he was glowing, actually, white hair like a halo or something over skin so pale… Charlie'd never seen so much white all on one person; head to toe except for his eyes. His eyes were black as night, black as outer space, the gold light of the library sparkling in them like the stars themselves.

He looked just as surprised as she was, dark eyes wide and somehow sad. "I meant no offense," he said, soft and timeless, and Charlie felt more than a little bad for snapping.

"No, I'm sorry," she said, contrite. "It's just been… well, it's just been a hell of day. First I died, uh, somehow, and then I was here and a bird…" She shook her head at herself, feeling silly, and held her hand out to the man for a handshake. "Well, anyway, hi, nice to meet you, I'm Charlie."

The man looked at her, still surprised, but now with an air of kind amusement. He took her hand, lifted it to his lips and kissed it gently, and Charlie felt a flush creep up her cheeks. "Charlie," he repeated, soft and low. "The pleasure is mine."

"Well, Lucien, would this be that lord you were talkin' about?" Charlie teased, turning back towards the librarian only to discover that he was nowhere in sight. She sighed, kind of disappointed. Par for the course, she reckoned, in a place where people came outta nowhere.

The man in white still had a hold of her hand, and when Charlie looked at him again, his eyes were sparkling with laughter. "Lucien has… strangely formal ideas, to say the least. You may call me Daniel."

"Nice to meet you, Lord Daniel," Charlie smiled, still a little flustered. "I think I said that already."

"_Just_ Daniel," he said, and Charlie could tell he wasn't much for titles and formality. She liked that about him. He seemed real… well, down to earth seemed wrong here. Real, anyway. He snapped his fingers, and Matthew flapped into the room once more, settling himself on Daniel's shoulder.

"See?" the raven said. "What'd I tell you? She's great, right?"

Charlie couldn't help smiling again. "Aww, thanks kindly, Matthew."

Matthew bowed, sort of, a bird kinda bow; leaning forward on his perch. Daniel sighed a little, but it was good-natured.

"Yes, Matthew, thank you very much. Please see that Miss Andrews' room is prepared. And arrange for Lucien to deliver any books she might wish to read."

"It's Charlie," Charlie corrected quickly, beaming at Matthew before turning her eyes on Daniel again. "You're 'just' Daniel. Well, I'm 'just' Charlie." And maybe she should've felt weird about being so buddy-buddy with this mysterious and regal fella she just met, but she got the feeling Daniel kind of liked it.

"You got it, Charlie," Matthew replied, and it was obvious he liked it a whole lot. "Anything in particular you feel like reading?"

She looked around at the shelves and thought about it, more than a little overwhelmed. "Anything. _Everything_."

"Yes, ma'am," Matthew laughed his strange bird laugh again, taking off and soaring a great circle overhead before swooping out the window.

Charlie wasn't really any closer to understanding what was going on, she thought, as she watched the raven fly away; but she was kind of starting to like it. It was shaping up to be one heck of an adventure.

"You should've mentioned your travel plans," Daniel said, gesturing to the book she still held. "Would you like to go?"

She lifted her eyes to his, startled at first; then looked down at her phrasebook, the well-worn and well-loved pages soft and rough against her fingertips. "Go where? What, _Japan?_"

"If you wish," he half-smiled, and her delighted grin could've lit the room up.

"I didn't know they let dead people go on vacations! Not that being dead has been anything like what I expected so far. Not that I expected…" She took a self-conscious breath. "I'm pretty new at this whole thing."

Daniel shrugged a little. "I can sympathize. But you're no ordinary dead person, Charlie Andrews. You're much more than that."

Charlie could feel herself starting to blush again and looked down at her feet, suddenly strangely shy. "What am I, then?" The question came out sounding way more serious than she meant it; but Daniel took it in stride, taking her hand again.

"My guest," he said, simply. "And traveling companion, if you like. For as long as you wish to stay."

"Oh," Charlie sighed, sensing that she was being offered a rarer than rare opportunity, and wondering what it was about her that was so special to deserve it. "I… all right. If you want. That's… you're very generous, Daniel."

Daniel waved his other hand idly, and suddenly his pure white robes had changed into a beautiful, ornately embroidered kimono; bright cranes with outstretched wings against a vibrant background of flowers. He smiled at her. "Then, shall we?"

"_Hai!_" said Charlie, giving his hand a friendly squeeze. "_Ikimashou!_"

**Author's Note:**

> _"Hai, ikimashou" means "Yes, let's go!" ^_^_


End file.
